Vikas Krishan stormed into the quarter-finals of the men’s 75kg category boxing at the Rio Olympics after beating Turkey's Onder Sipal by a unanimous decision on Friday night.
The Indian pugilist in now one win away from a medal at the Games.
India's first boxer to reach quarter-finals in Rio, Vikas will meet Uzbekistan's World Championships silver medallist Bektemir Melikuziev in the next round.
The 24-year old began aggressively and targeted Sipal with clean punches.
He used his long range and subtle footwork to stay clear of his opponent.
The first round was a 2:1 split, but in favour of the Indian.
The second and third rounds were dominated by Vikas and he was awarded both by a unanimous decision.
In the third round, one of the judges awarded the round to Sipal but since Vikas had pocketed the second round it made no difference to the result.
Vikas buried the ghosts of London 2012 where he was eliminated in the preliminary round, despite initially being declared the winner.
Melikuziev had beaten Vikas in the final of the 2015 Asian Championships. He was the 2014 Youth Olympic Games champion.
The Uzbek, who was named 2015 Best Male Boxer by the Asian Boxing Confederation, defeated Daniel Lewis of Australia.
Besides Vikas, Manoj Kumar is the other boxer still in contention in the men’s 66kg category.
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